TONY Abbott has responded to comments by former Labor leader Mark Latham that he had "beer goggles" on when he said Liberal candidate Fiona Scott had sex appeal.

"I'm just going to leave all that kind of hyperventilating to others," the Opposition Leader said, before criticising Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for an about-face on being positive during the election campaign.

"Mr Rudd said at the beginning that he wanted a positive campaign and yet what we've seen from people associated with the Labor party is non-stop negativity," he said.

Mr Latham said Mr Abbott had only said Ms Scott had sex appeal to win her votes with men and that she was plain looking.

Mr Latham leapt with both feet into the "sex appeal" controversy yesterday, saying the Opposition Leader must have been drunk to think Ms Scott attractive.

"It showed very bad judgement and it shows he has low standards," Latham told Melbourne radio station 3AW of the comments.

Mr Abbott caused an uproar on Tuesday when he described politician Fiona Scott, his candidate for the seat of Lindsay, as having "a bit of sex appeal" when he was comparing her to former Liberal member Jackie Kelly.